Jeff Sinclair

Jeff Sinclair

Managing Director

Caithness LLC

Jeff is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Michigan, with a joint appointment from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering. Jeff also serves as a member of the Advisory Boards for the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Zell Lurie Institute. Prior to joining as an adjunct, he served as chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Ross School of Business.

Jeff retired in December, 2012 as a Director (senior partner) in McKinsey & Company’s Washington, DC Office. He also served in the Firm’s offices in San Francisco and Cleveland, where he was managing director from 1999 through 2005. As a McKinsey consultant for more than 30 years, Jeff has a breadth of experience serving CEOs and their leadership teams in strategy, operations and organization.Â He has served companies in North America, Asia and Europe across multiple industries, including electronics and high-tech, aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial products, basic materials, consumer goods and food.Â He also has worked extensively with the US Federal Government.

Jeff's functional expertise is in operations. He has worked with top management teams of technology- and operations-intensive businesses to develop and align business and operations strategies, and to build leadership and front-line capabilities to deliver substantial improvements in strategic and financial performance. He co-founded McKinsey's Manufacturing Practice, and in 2012 led a major research effort on the Future of Manufacturing jointly with the McKinsey Global Institute. During his career, Jeff also led the Firm’s Product Development and Supply Chain Practices, and served as McKinsey’s Global Knowledge Leader for the Operations Practice, essentially the head of R&D across operations disciplines including product development, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and service operations.

Jeff has a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. He has made multiple investments in start-ups and private-equity-owned companies, and currently serves on the boards of directors of four privately-held companies. He also started his own firm, Caithness LLC, and formed a partnership with Headwaters, a Pittsburgh-based investment bank, to serve family-owned businesses in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. While Office Manager in Cleveland, Jeff led McKinsey’s work to help establish BioEnterprise, NorTech, and TeamNEO to drive economic development in Northeast Ohio. In 2011 and 2012 he led the Firm’s work with the Cincinnati Business Committee to accelerate the innovation economy in Southwest Ohio, resulting the creation of Cintrifuse, where he is now a board member.

Before joining McKinsey, Jeff worked for Chrysler Corporation as a test engineer and IBM as a systems engineer. He holds a Masters in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan.